Monday, May 9, 2011

It was something worth sharing. Last winter, Valarie had spotted a mama fox and her four little kits. She grabbed her camera and started clicking away, and promptly shared those photos on her blog.

I saw those photos, read her words, and was an instant fan. Those babies were just precious, and to see close-up photos of them was a rare treat. One blog post turned into two, and then into a weekly series call the The Fox Diaries.

Every Thursday morning I'd pop over to see what those babes were up to, and every Thursday afternoon when the girls came home, they'd ask if there was a new fox post. And so it came to be that for a few months the girls and I delighted in the adventures of the kits. We learned their names, and how to identify each one by their markings. We started to know their individual personalities, each one so very distinct from the next. We felt like we had front row seats, watching them play, snuggle, sneak away, learning to hunt, and compete with each other and for mama's attention. oh how we fell for that family of foxes.

Then, as the spring came to an end, the foxes left Valarie's garden. She would look for them in their usual places at their usual times, but they were gone. The Fox Diaries blog posts came to an end and I had to break it to my girls--the foxes had moved on. As much as we knew it was as it should be, we were so sad to see them go.

But the story doesn't end there. A few months ago Valarie wrote to tell me that she had been compiling her Fox Diaries series into a book.

Today, I'm here to celebrate the release of Valarie's book, The Fox Diaries! As I write this, a beautiful bound copy of the story of those little foxes sits in my lap, with a sweet note scribbled on the inside cover, from the author herself.

Valarie is kindly giving away a copy of The Fox Diaries here on Elemental this week. Leave a comment to be entered to win. The winner will be chosen on Friday, May 13th.

Monday, May 2, 2011

So much changes in the kitchen this time of year. Out winter stockpile dwindles just as we transplant the new seedlings. We simultaneously welcome fresh ingredients and say goodbye to all those hearty cold-weather recipes. Firsts and lasts abound.

~first corn, last jars of freezer jam and pesto~

~First green smoothie, last frozen blueberries, picked in July~

~first store-bought garlic, last batch of lentil soup~

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the year I planted enough garlic to get us though until the next harvest. That this is the year we pick not ten, but twenty pounds of blueberries. That this is the year I jar up double the amounts of jams and tomatoes. That this is the year we rely more on our own food production than ever before.

What comfort foods are you saying goodbye to for the summer? What things are you welcoming back into your warm-weather kitchen?

Hi! I’m Amy, the hands–and heart–behind AG Ambroult and Elemental.Using my tactile sense has always driven my creative decisions and life pursuits, but after a few years of working in front of a computer and tickling babies, my hands grew soft and smooth. That’s when I realized it was time to trash them again, and bending metal seemed like just the thing.